Meyer Brothers to Compete at Jayco Hearld Sun Tour

WAIS cyclists Cameron and Travis Meyer will line up together for professional road team Garmin-Cervelo later this month at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour in Victoria.

The Helena Valley raised brothers will form with Australian road race champion Jack Bobridge and are set to join the cream of Australian cycling next week to form one of the strongest teams ever to compete at the Tour.

As rising stars of Australian cycling, Bobridge – world under-23 time trial champion in 2009 and fifth at the elite level this year, and four-time track world champion Meyer are set show their potential to local fans as part of an all-Australian Garmin-Cervélo team in the 59th edition of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

Bobridge and the Meyer boys will also be joined by Tour of France and Vuelta a España stage winner Heinrich Haussler, Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Brett Lancaster and 2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour winner Matthew Wilson to form a formidable team.

Garmin-Cervélo are the third UCI WorldTour team announced for the Wednesday 12th to Sunday 16th October race, joining Richie Porte’s SaxoBank-SunGard and Adam Hansen’s Omega Pharma – Lotto, in addition to Professional Continental Tour team Skil-Shimano, led by 2011 Tour of Spain stage winner Marcel Kittel.

Cameron Meyer is looking to join Simon Gerrans as the only rider to have won both the Tour Down Under and the Jayco Herald Sun Tour in the same year. Gerrans completed the sweep of Australia’s two greatest stage races in 2006.

“It’s not going to be easy because there are lots of top riders. I see SaxoBank are sending a good team,” Meyer said.

“But we are going to be a very motivated team, six Australians together looking to finish the season on a high.”

“I am conscious of the open areas on the early days of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and it will be hard to keep the peloton together. I am looking to stage four as my best chance. The ride up Arthur’s Seat looks pretty interesting. But anything could happen before we get to Arthur’s Seat,”

Meyer will be looking to rediscover the early-season form in the inaugural Tour of Beijing and carry the momentum into one of his final races of the year.”

“With five days of riding in Beijing and another three at the beginning of the tour, I will have a good chance to gain some race fitness before then,” Meyer said.

“Before Beijing I have not had as many racing days as I would have liked but that’s how it is in cycling. But being here in Beijing means I have the chance to gain some form out of it and then do well in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.”

Bobridge is set to relish the opportunity to show off his green and gold jersey to Australian fans, and says there will be a bit of pressure on him to uphold such a prestigious honour.

“The Jayco Herald Sun Tour will be my first race in Australia since the Tour Down Under in the national jersey, so I would like to go well there,” Bobridge said.

“I will see how I go in the Tour of Beijing (this week), then see what comes in the early part of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and see if I can get a stage win.

“For me by then it’s the harder, the better, I guess. I know the weather, especially the winds at this time of the year, can affect the race, so let’s see.

“And I am not forgetting that we have a strong team.”

All members of the six-rider team, except Haussler, will be joining Australia’s first team on the UCI WorldTour, named GreenEDGE, next season. Haussler, who was born in Inverell but originally raced under a German licence, made his Australian-team debut a fortnight ago at the UCI World Road Championships in Copenhagen.

For the experienced riders on the team, Lancaster and Wilson, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour offers a great rehearsal for 2012, as both will be key leaders and likely road captains for GreenEDGE, along with Stuart O’Grady.

Wilson, 34, enjoys the rare opportunity to return home to Victoria during a distinguished career, which saw him become the Australian road champion in 2004.

“I grew up 15km from Arthur’s Seat and its going to be exciting having the Tour there. With the riders we’ve got and the local knowledge, I am sure that we can be very competitive,” Wilson said.

“Young Jack’s going pretty good and Heinrich’s in good shape too. We’ve got a really good team – riders coming of the worlds, the Vuelta and then here in Beijing.”

“And that’s important because looking at the other riders who are coming, I think this is one of the best fields ever at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. We are going to have four of us coming straight from Beijing, plus Travis Meyer and Brett Lancaster,” Wilson said.